Cooking Appliance Mounted at an Elevated Level

ABSTRACT

A cooking appliance which is mounted at an elevated level and comprises at least one muffle that defines a cooking compartment and is provided with a muffle opening, and a bottom door for closing the muffle opening. The inventive cooking appliance is provided with a boundary decoration on the top face of the bottom door. Said boundary decoration indicates a border of the cooking compartment on the bottom door in a substantial manner, i.e. without distortions modifying the characteristics, according to the support of the muffle.

The present invention relates to a high-level built-in cooking appliancehaving at least one muffle that delimits a cooking chamber and has amuffle opening on its base side, and a base door for closing the muffleopening.

Generic high-level built-in cooking appliances are known for examplefrom U.S. Pat. No. 2,944,540, WO 98/04871, DE 100 59 652 or DE 101 64239.

Also known for cookers having hotplates made of glass ceramic is the useof decor patterns to demarcate the hotplates.

With high-level built-in cooking appliances it is disadvantageous incontrast to other types of cooking appliances that when the base door ismoved upward—e.g. for the purpose of closing the cooking appliance foran oven mode of operation—cookware that projects beyond the edge of thecooking chamber or muffle can become jammed or can be overturned. Inorder to avoid damage due to objects being jammed in the closingdirection, anti-jamming protection devices are known, e.g. from DE 10164 239, in which after the jamming situation has occurred the base dooris halted and its movement reversed. In this case, however, the jammingsituation is not prevented, with the result that although serious damagedue to the jamming incident is avoided, accidents such as, for example,cooking dishes or baking pans being overturned or foods placed directlyon the surface being crushed are not.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a meansof avoiding objects becoming jammed on the top side of the base door.

The present object is achieved by means of the high-level built-incooking appliance as claimed in claim 1. Advantageous embodiments may bederived from the dependent claims either individually or in combination.

For this purpose the high-level built-in cooking appliance is furnishedon the top side of the base door with a delimiting decor pattern whichessentially, i.e. without nature-modifying deviations, indicates thelimits of the cooking chamber—corresponding to the rest position of themuffle—on the base door. By means of said delimiting decor pattern it ispossible for a user to check the position of objects on the base doorprior to the closing movement in order to determine whether they willmove into the muffle without colliding or jamming.

In order to utilize the maximum space for placing objects on the basedoor it is advantageous if the outer contour of the delimiting decorpattern corresponds to the limits of the cooking chamber.

Since full utilization of the limits of the cooking chamber permits notolerance for error on the part of the user (e.g. not taking intoaccount pot edges, imprecise positioning in particular in the case oflarger objects, poor vision, haste, etc.), it can be advantageous if theouter contour of the delimiting decor pattern corresponds to the limitsof the cooking chamber except for a clearance. Said clearance allows acorresponding exceeding of the delimiting decor pattern for the purposeof an orderly closing movement.

For typical cooking appliances it has proved a good compromise betweenadequate safety clearance and maximum utilization of the limits of thecooking chamber if the clearance is less than 3.5 cm, in particular lessthan 2 cm, especially less than 1 cm.

Since objects usually cannot be positioned so precisely in respect ofthe rear edge of the delimiting decor pattern due to the poorerperspective recognition and a possible concealing of the boundary, it isadvantageous if the clearance is greater at a rear edge of thedelimiting decor pattern than the clearance at a front edge of thedelimiting decor pattern and/or than the clearance at side edges of thedelimiting decor pattern. In this case it has proven favorable inparticular if the clearance at the front edge and the clearance at theside edges is less than 2 cm, in particular less than 1 cm, and theclearance at the rear edge more than 1 cm, in particular more than 2 cm,and less than 4 cm.

Since corner limits are comparatively more difficult to observe by auser, it is advantageous if the corners of the delimiting decor patternare rounded.

The invention is described below with reference to the attachedschematic figures, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a wall-mounted, high-level built-incooking appliance with the base door lowered;

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the high-level built-in cookingappliance with the base door closed;

FIG. 3 shows a plan view onto an embodiment of the base door;

FIG. 4 shows a schematic side view, in cross-section along the line I-Ishown in FIG. 1, of the wall-mounted, high-level built-in cookingappliance with the base door lowered; and

FIG. 5 shows a plan view onto an embodiment of the base door withdelimiting decor pattern.

In the interests of providing a better illustration of the individualelements the figures are not drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 shows a high-level built-in cooking appliance having a housing 1.The rear of the housing 1 is mounted in the manner of a suspendedcabinet on a wall 2. Defined in the housing 1 is a cooking chamber 3that can be monitored through a viewing window 4 incorporated at thefront in the housing 1. It can be seen in FIG. 4 that the cookingchamber 3 is delimited by a muffle 5 which is provided with a thermallyinsulating casing (not shown) and that the muffle 5 has a muffle opening6 on its base. The muffle opening 6 can be closed by means of a basedoor 7. The base door 7 is shown in the lowered position in FIG. 1,resting with its underside on a work surface 8 of an item of kitchenfurniture. In order to close the cooking chamber 3 the base door 7 mustbe moved into the position shown in FIG. 2, which is termed the “zeroposition”. For the purpose of moving the base door 7 the high-levelbuilt-in cooking appliance has a drive device 9, 10. The drive device 9,10 has a drive motor 9, indicated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 by means of dashedlines, which is disposed between the muffle 5 and an exterior wall ofthe housing 1. The drive motor 9 is disposed in the area of the rear ofthe housing 1 and, as shown in FIG. 1 or 4, is operatively connected toa pair of lifting elements 10 which are linked to the base door 7.According to the schematic side view shown in FIG. 4 each liftingelement 10 is therein embodied as an L-shaped support whose verticallimb extends from the drive motor 9 on the housing side. For moving thebase door 7 the drive motor 9 can be actuated with the aid of anoperating panel 12 and a control circuit 13, which panel is according toFIGS. 1 and 2 arranged at the front on the base door 7. As shown in FIG.4, the control circuit 13 is located behind the operating panel 12inside the base door 7. The control circuit 13, consisting here of aplurality of spatially and functionally separate printed circuit boardsthat communicate via a communication bus, constitutes a central controlunit for operating the appliance and controls and/or regulates, forexample, heating, displacing of the base door 3, implementing of userinputs, illuminating, pinching/jamming protection, clocking of theheating elements 16, 17, 18, 22, and much more.

It can be seen from FIG. 1 that a top side of the base door 7 has acooking matrix 15. Virtually the entire surface of the cooking matrix 15is occupied by heating elements 16, 17, 18, which are indicated in FIG.1 by dash-dotted lines. According to FIG. 1 the heating elements 16, 17are two differently sized hotplate heating elements spaced apart fromeach other, while the heating element 18 is a panel heating elementprovided between and almost enclosing the two hotplate heating elements16, 17. For the user, the hotplate heating elements 16, 17 defineassociated cooking zones or cooking rings; together with the panelheating element 18, the hotplate heating elements 16, 17 define abottom-heat zone. The zones can be indicated by means of a suitabledecor pattern on the surface. The heating elements 16, 17, 18 can eachbe controlled via the control circuit 13.

In the exemplary embodiment shown, the heating elements 16, 17, 18 areembodied as radiant heating elements covered by a glass ceramic plate19. The glass ceramic plate 19 has approximately the same dimensions asthe top side of the base door 7. The glass ceramic plate 19 isfurthermore fitted with mounting openings (not shown) through whichprotrude bases for fixing securing parts 20 for supports 21 for itemsbeing cooked, as also shown in FIG. 4. Instead of a glass ceramic plate19 it is also possible to employ other—preferablyfast-reacting—coverings, for example a thin metal plate.

With the aid of a control knob provided in the operating panel 12 thehigh-level built-in cooking appliance can be switched to a hotplateoperating mode or a bottom-heat operating mode, which are explainedbelow.

In the hotplate operating mode the hotplate heating elements 16, 17 canbe controlled individually via the control circuit 13 by means ofcontrol elements 11 provided in the operating panel 12, while the panelheating element 18 remains in the non-operating state. The hotplateoperating mode can be used with the base door 7 lowered, as is shown inFIG. 1. However, it can also be used within the scope of anenergy-saving function when the cooking chamber 3 is closed with thebase door 7 raised.

In the bottom-heat operating mode not only the hotplate heating elements16, 17 but also the panel heating element 18 are controlled by thecontrol device 13.

In order to achieve maximally even browning of items being cooked duringthe bottom-heat mode it is critical that the cooking matrix 15 providingthe bottom heat should distribute the heating output evenly across thesurface of the cooking matrix 15, even though the heating elements 16,17, 18 have different nominal outputs. The heating elements 16, 17, 18are therefore preferably not switched to continuous operation by thecontrol circuit 13; instead, the power supply to the heating elements16, 17, 18 is clocked. The different nominal heat outputs of the heatingelements 16, 17, 18 are therein reduced individually in such a way thatthe heating elements 16, 17, 18 will distribute the heating outputevenly across the surface of the cooking matrix 15.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates the position of an air circulation pot23 having an air circulation motor and an associated ring heatingelement, e.g. for generating hot circulating air in the case of ahot-air mode of operation. The air circulation pot 23, which is opentoward the cooking chamber, is typically separated from the latter by adeflector (not shown). Further provided attached to a top side of themuffle 5 is a top-heat heating element 22 that can be embodied as ofsingle-circuit or multiple-circuit design, for example having an innerand an outer circuit. The various operating modes such as, for example,also top-heat, hot-air or quick-heat mode can be set by means of thecontrol circuit 13 by appropriately switching or setting the heat outputof the heating elements 16, 17, 18, 22, possibly with activating of thefan 23. The heat output can be set by means of suitable clocking. Thecooking matrix 15 can furthermore be embodied otherwise, for examplewith or without a roasting zone, as a pure—single-circuit ormultiple-circuit—warming zone without cooking rings, and so forth. Thehousing 1 has a seal 24 facing toward the base door 7.

The operating panel 12 is normally arranged at the front of the basedoor 7. Other arrangements are alternatively also conceivable, forexample at the front of the housing 1, distributed over differentpartial panels, and/or in part on side surfaces of the cookingappliance. Further embodiments are possible. The control elements 11 arenot limited in their structural design and can include, for example,control knobs, toggle switches, pushbuttons, and plastic membrane keysthat include display elements 14, for example LED, LCD and/ortouchscreen displays.

FIG. 5 shows a plan view (not to scale) onto an embodiment of the basedoor 7 with delimiting decor pattern. In this view the operating panel12 is at the bottom.

In the closed state the muffle rests on the surface of the base door 7,the base door 7 thereby forming a side of the cooking chamber. Thelimits 25 of the cooking chamber due to the muffle resting thereon areshown by the dotted line. In this embodiment, a delimiting decor pattern26 applied to the surface of the base door 7 has—except for the cornerareas—a constant clearance d=1 cm from the limits of the cooking chamber25, i.e. the same clearance for dv for a front edge 26 a of thedelimiting decor pattern 26, as well as ds and dh for the side edges 26b and the rear edge 26 c, respectively, of the delimiting decor pattern26. The clearances dv, ds and dh can also be different from one anotherin suitable combinations; this also applies to the respective two sideclearances ds.

The surface of the base door 7 also has a decor pattern 27 to delimitthe heating zone as well as a decor pattern 28 for the two hotplatesthat are present in this case.

In other embodiments it is possible for example for only one decorpattern 27 for delimiting the heating zone to be present, e.g. if theheating zone has no hotplate function, but only a warming andbottom-heat function. Also, the base door does not need to have its ownheating elements and in that case serves only as a cover for the cookingchamber.

The design of the delimiting decor pattern 26 is left to the discretionof the person skilled in the art and can include, for example, differentline shapes, depths, densities, colors, etc.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

-   1 Housing-   2 Wall-   3 Cooking chamber-   4 Viewing window-   5 Muffle-   6 Muffle opening-   7 Base door-   8 Work surface-   9 Drive motor-   10 Lifting element-   11 Control element-   12 Operating panel-   13 Control circuit-   14 Display elements-   15 Heating zone-   16 Hotplate heating element-   17 Hotplate heating element-   18 Panel heating element-   19 Glass ceramic plate-   20 Securing part-   21 Support for items being cooked-   22 Top-heat heating element-   23 Fan-   24 Seal-   25 Cooking chamber limits-   26 Delimiting decor pattern-   26 a Front edge of the delimiting decor pattern-   26 b Side edge of the delimiting decor pattern-   26 c Rear edge of the delimiting decor pattern-   27 Heating zone limit-   28 Hotplate decor pattern-   d Clearance: cooking chamber limits—delimiting decor pattern-   dh Rear clearance-   ds Side clearance-   dv Front clearance

1-8. (canceled)
 9. A high-level built-in cooking appliance having amuffle defining a cooking chamber with a muffle opening formed on itsbase side, the cooking appliance comprising: a base door for generallyvertical movement into and out of a covering relation with the muffleopening, the base door being formed with an indicia pattern disposed onan upwardly directed portion of the base door for indicating the limitsof the cooking chamber on the base door when the base door is coveringthe muffle opening.
 10. The high-level built-in cooking applianceaccording to claim 9 wherein an outer contour of the indicia patterncorresponds to the cooking chamber limits.
 11. The high-level built-incooking appliance according to claim 9 wherein an outer contour of theindicia pattern corresponds to a location on the base door apredetermined clearance distance from the cooking chamber limits. 12.The high-level built-in cooking appliance according to claim 9 whereinthe clearance distance is less than 2 cm, in particular less than 1 cm.13. The high-level built-in cooking appliance according to claim 12wherein the clearance distance at a rear edge of the indicia pattern isgreater than at least one of the clearance distance at a front edge ofthe indicia pattern and the clearance distance at side edges of theindicia pattern.
 14. The high-level built-in cooking appliance accordingto claim 13 wherein the clearance distance at the front edge of theindicia pattern and the clearance distance at the side edges the indiciapattern are each less than 2 cm, in particular less than 1 cm, and theclearance at the rear edge is greater than 1 cm, in particular more than2 cm, and less than 4 cm.
 15. The high-level built-in cooking applianceclaim 9 wherein the corners of the indicia pattern are rounded.